Simulation and Digital Twin Based Design of a Production Line: A Case Study

This paper is aimed to optimize a machining cycle for electric motors brake disk support plates. Today it is possible to adopt modeling and simulation techniques that thank to the increasing power of technologies and the Industry 4.0 platform allow understanding the impacts of changes in the production and therefore verifying its effectiveness and limits. In this context, the Digital twin (DT) implements concepts that try to solve the problem of handling large amounts of data that is accessed concurrently and has numerous internal semantic dependencies. The purpose of this paper is to provide an application of DT through the adoption of simulation techniques. The sample takes inspiration from a real plant, which produces anchoring plates for electric motor brake discs The weakness point of the cycle is represented by problems arising from its discontinuity. To simulate and study solutions, AnyLogic software was used to create virtual simulation models.